The ISO 9000 family of standards provides a framework for quality management systems. ISO 9001:2008 is the key standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system that can be certified. It requires organizations to systematically manage their processes to consistently meet customer expectations. The standard is flexible and can be implemented across diverse organizations. Organizations are required to audit their own quality systems and may choose to have independent certification audits to verify compliance, which can help gain clients' confidence and reduce redundant audits.

1. ISO 9000
Software Management Project
Narcis Murarecu, an IV, CTI

2. Essential features of the ISO 9000
family
The ISO 9000 family of standards represents an international
consensus on good quality management practices. It consists of
standards and guidelines relating to quality management
systems and related supporting standards.
ISO 9001:2008 is the standard that provides a set of
standardized requirements for a quality management system,
regardless of what the user organization does, its size, or
whether it is in the private, or public sector. It is the only
standard in the family against which organizations can be
certified – although certification is not a compulsory
requirement of the standard.
The other standards in the family cover specific aspects such as
fundamentals and vocabulary, performance improvements,
documentation, training, and financial and economic aspects.

3. Why an organization should
implement ISO 9001:2008?
To keep customers satisfied, the organization needs
to meet their requirements.
The ISO 9001:2008 standard provides a tried and
tested framework for taking a systematic approach to
managing the organization's processes so that they
consistently turn out product that satisfies customers'
expectations.

4. How the ISO 9001:2008 model
work
The requirements for a quality system have been
standardized - but many organizations like to think of
themselves as unique. So how does ISO 9001:2008
allow for the diversity of say, on the one hand, a "Mr. and
Mrs." enterprise, and on the other, to a multinational
manufacturing company with service components, or a
public utility, or a government administration?
The answer is that ISO 9001:2008 lays down what
requirements your quality system must meet, but does not
dictate how they should be met in any particular
organization. This leaves great scope and flexibility for
implementation in different business sectors and business
cultures, as well as in different national cultures.

5. Checking that it works
The standard requires the organization itself to audit its ISO 9001:2008-
based quality system to verify that it is managing its processes
effectively - or, to put it another way, to check that it is fully in control of
its activities.
In addition, the organization may invite its clients to audit the quality
system in order to give them confidence that the organization is
capable of delivering products or services that will meet their
requirements.
Lastly, the organization may engage the services of an independent
quality system certification body to obtain an ISO 9001:2008 certificate
of conformity. This last option has proved extremely popular in the
market-place because of the perceived credibility of an independent
assessment.
The organization may thus avoid multiple audits by its clients, or reduce the
frequency or duration of client audits. The certificate can also serve as a
business reference between the organization and potential clients, especially
when supplier and client are new to each other, or far removed geographically,
as in an export context.